when you put him on a stage against barack obama to debate how to grow the economy, it will be the difference between someone who as grown the economy and somebody who read it in a magazine. >> we're not going to know what the supreme court thinks about the health care law until june. some people on the front of the wall street journal are guessing they're on the defensive, trying to prevent this rule or law from getting struck down. there is a school of thought of people who believe that if it is struck down that, that will really motivate president obama as base and that will be a really tough thing to go up again in the election. what do you think about that? >> i haven't spent a lot of time doing the political calculation and i don't know the answer. i believe on two fronts -- i think it's us constitutional and i think it bad public policy for example, franchises, who are scared to death of the heck law, they done fully understand what it means and hieven the lawyer can't tell them because the rule hasn't been written. they're saying let me go part time, cut back on hiring be and not expa

. >> we have a debate coming up at 8:30 in which we're going to talk about this issue of has the obama administration kept oil -- federal lands from the oil companies? obama administration says they put 50 million acres out there unused, 7,000 drilling permits unused. oil industry says we can't get to the places we want to get at. what's the reality? >> the reality is it's a mixed picture, it usually is. i will say there was a lease sale in december, first one since the one for the western gulf of mexico and that was pretty successful. there was a bid from conoco phillips for over $100 million. the fact is the five-year plan the obama administration did draw up to succeed the one that expires this year does keep a lot of things out of limits that they had originally thought at the end of the bush administration would probably be in. i would say this to the oil industry, you can't go to any oil sector meeting, oil industry meeting and hear them not complain about a lack of engineers, pet trollem engineers and lack of geologists, et cetera. if all this land was open, i wonder if they'd h

as soon as we get to the target and debate and contest between mitt romney and president obama, the better off we will be and the better our chances will be of winning in november. >> senator when do you know? right. you've made it through the nominating process and then you didn't. so when is a candidate do you know that it's just time to give it up. when does your presence become more destructive to the overall process? >> well let me remind you that in 2000 i had to make that decision. you know, it's like, what's the different. child pornography you know it when you see it. you know when you see that it's time to fold your tent and fight another day. so, it's really a numbers game in some respect and there's no way that either rick santorum or newt gingrich can get there. but by the way ron paul will stay in. he stayed in 2008. he has his own agenda. that's not so important. >> senator, you recently said mitt romney quote has not done as well as we had hoped, unquote. what do you mean by that? >> what i meant by that early on, you know, we carried new hampshire, big win in florida and i

well said. >> jimmy says obama wants to have a substantive debate. is there a worry that he could get too deep into the issues? >> no, because of the timeframe. they're 15-minute segments. they'll go back and forth. it's not set up. they won't have the chance to go way into it deep. >> that's my worry, that you come out of this with no substance. i want substance. >> if i'm a candidate running for the presidency of the united states, what i really care about are the undecides, the people who have not yet made up their mind. those are the folks that are going to swing this election. so you've got to speak to those folks. for them, it's not just a matter of the substance. substance is very, very important. but it's also a matter of your style. how do you react under pressure? do you have a sense of humor? are you quick on your feet? >> so here's a substantive question. it goes to specifics. we always talk about are we going to hear about specifics during this debate. apparently yesterday, romney came out and floated this idea of itemized deductions, a

the house will debate legislation to repeal president obama's health care reform law. meantime the senate is drawing battle lines for the debate over the president's proposal to extend the bush era tax cuts but only for those families making less than $250,000. good to know all these elected officials on the republican side are going to repeal health care with no chance of it passing in the senate and then in the senate they are going to do something about extending the bush tax cuts only for those making less than 250,000 and going absolutely nowhere in the house. they will do things between now and november that have no influence on anything but they will be there with industrious looks on their face. >> they will make it clear they stand for something. we would be far better off if our legislators met less. the minute you become a legislator you like to legislate. you think you must make laws, there should be less legislation in the world. >> it's not all about, i don't think, trying to be of service and trying to do good. i think it's about walking into the dry cle

. >> how would he fare against president obama in the general election? we'll have a bipartisan debate with representatives fredricka wilson and connie mack. >>> we're counting down to jobs friday, an early read at 8:15 eastern with the adp employment report. the third hour of "squawk box" begins right now. >>> welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, first in business worldwide, i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin. u.s. equity futures are back up to 9 0, 91 points above fair value and that adds to a great january. at least on the open. and i guess there's some, it's once again, things that happen in europe, he guess some funding italy went well. >> this was china, too. >> but whatever it is, we've got different reasons every day for the slow, steady move that we've seen in the averages. >> i'm i'll take the march higher any day. in our headlines this morning, watch shares of amazon.com at the open. the company's fourth quarter revenue falling $1 billion short of expectations. we talked about it last hour. net income fell sharpl

let's separate the debate on health care. the question is what can we do to get the right tax incentives for manufacturers. >> one of the industries we can still manufacturer, medical devices? >> i don't think the obama care -- >> you called it that even though you're in the administration. >> i think the universal health care has, does not -- >> you're humoring me, ro. i no know that. >> you're aware that the big incentive for medical devices is ireland, not the united states, and it's partly -- >> going to get worse. >> -- because of the low tax rate and well educated workforce. this administration is granting waivers so high schools don't have to teach as much math and science. it's totally inconsistent with your manufacturing policy. >> ro was only in commerce. >> i think the administration has emphasized stem education, vocational education, but my point is let's take the politics out of the manufacturing agenda. this is in the national interest just like it was to beat the soviet union, you need to compete with china af

this report of course came just days before tonight's foreign policy debate with president obama and mitt romney. >> great editorial piece in the journal about how that came about. some senior official obviously said that a tempting october surprise. talks about not just in that instance, a movie about how to-to-cheat on your wife where you're this bed with a woman, your wife comes in, you just keep denying as the woman gets dressed, you get dressed, your wife keeps say whog is this woman, what are you doing, what woman? until she finally leaves and then five minutes later the wife just gives up and says what do you want for dinner tonight. but that's typical of what we've heard for the last 3 1/2 years. >> tonight is the big debate. it will be focused on foreign affairs. and they've already put out a list of the topics he wants to get to. so i don't know what new will happen tonight. they'll be sitting at a table. this might be more calm. they won't be walking around. also there was a new photo that's been released of fidel castro. seen holding up the photo of castro, he says he met

debate with president obama so what are you talking about? >> he said that he would not lower rates on wealthier people. >> but it's right. no net increase in revenue on people. >> he will not raise revenue, which is what simpson-bowles, rivlin-domenici and the gang of six in the senate agreed. >> neither side has picked it up, the frustration that a plan like bowles-simpson has not put forth. >> not true. >> how so? >> i served on the supercommittee, i know this, i know exactly what stopped that committee from being able to get a deal. >> which one? >> we had major transformation in entitlements, a major proposal from 1.3 trillion to 600 to 300 billion. they wouldn't even agree to $300 billion of revenue so it was impossible to get an agreement because they were terrified of grover forquist the lobbyist who might run somebody against them in the primary. i'm telling you the truth that's what happened. >> i thought between the end it was between boehner and president and they were close to a deal. there are different sides on what happened. i

it is unfortunate with all that is going on, that's where the debate is right now. >> it depends on how far you want to go back, when there was bush fatigue there's no doubt about that, that sort offishered in the obama years but i don't know about underestimating the depth of the recession and focusing on obama care. that's what ushered in the tea party, the tea party at this point are the ones that the democratic side would say is so intransigent. i would say i wish the president had been more willing to go in and get his hands dirty with the leadership of both parties and say we have to do something. because it's been two years that we've been watching this, and others would say he didn't have a chance because the tea party is so intransigent you can't talk to these guys, so far out there. the tea party was almost spawned by the first two years of the way obama care was rammed down the country's throat, this unpopular bill they spent all that time on is, we were going above 10% in unemployment. am i wrong on that? >> i think there are a number of voters who say you're right. the hous

and president obama's gone the other way. he hadn't gone a bit to the center, continues to move to the left. he admits he's a redistributionist. and this is an important debate is how do we want to get more people dependent on a good job and on themselves and their families to be able to pay taxes to be contributors to the american dream? i mean, that's really a lot about what this campaign is about. i think mitt romney's ideas will trump the record of effort and failure of barack obama. and that's the closing argument and that's why i think he'll win virginia. >> governor mcdonnell, thank you for joining us today. >> okay. thanks very much. >>> we're going to have much more from jack welch when we return. plus, a call that may have derailed a rally for train stocks. we've got the details on that when we return. ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing a stunning work of technology. introducing the entirely new lexus es. and the first-ever es hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. bob... oh, hey alex. just picking up some, broc

and in ohio, romney trimmed two percentage points off of obama's pre-debate lead. the president holds a 51-45% edge among likely vote everies there. john harwood will be joining us live from kentucky with more in just a few minutes. but first andrew has this morning's top business stories. >>> we got some banking news this morning on wall street. jpmorgan cfo dug braunstein will be stepping down. he'll take on another post within the company, so he won't be leaving, but it was on his watch that the jpmorgan london whale experience happened and there remains scrutiny all around that. he's expected to lead the bank's earnings call tomorrow morning, so a lot of interest thp. in other headlines related to jpmorgan, deal book is reporting that the fbi investigation into the bank's $6 billion trading loss may not inchbly indicate jamie dimon, buts investigation does not appear to touch on the echelons of top management, but the company is still under investigation by the sec as to whether it misled investors about the size of the loss and it's worth noting it got tapes.

it's good to see americans getting exercise. >> which side of the debate are they on? >> i think they're on all sides but anything that involves a castanette, i'm in favor of. "squawk box" ap courses. together, they raised ap test scores 138%. just imagine our potential... ...if the other states joined them. let's raise our scores. let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students. let's solve this. this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. >> coming out in october. >> "it's your business." >> is this kind of like -- >> we collaborated on it. >> we do a lot. >> yeah. >> okay. thanks. see you on "your business." [ male announcer ] olympic tennis players bob and mike bryan do a lot of sending... and receiving. sending...and receiving. sending...and receiving. sending...and receiving. sending

he played barack obama in the debate prep against john mccain in 2008. he's a very popular political figure in the state of ohio, which is a state that republicans have to carry. no one will say anything other than he's prepared to be president of the united states from day one. i think he's the front-runner for vice presidential candidate. >> ford might be good this time around after last time. >> people do the vanilla ice cream thing with him. he's a very effective communicator. he's a very good politician and he's prepared to be president of the united states. absolutely. >> who is your favorite msnbc host, steve. >> i love them all equally. >> so do i. so do i. we're going to see them all this weekend, mandy at the correspondents -- you be at the correspondents dinner? >> i will. >> i'll see you there, say hi to you. >>> coming up, talk straight from the gut, jack welch will be phoning in with a bit of news and talking about the economy. at the top of the hour bart chilton, from oil speculation to derivative regulation we'll lay it all the on the lin

for obama. if you look at the poll out today obama hits to 50% approval for the first time since he was briefly there when osama bin laden in the wake of osama bin laden's death he has a clear lead by nine points over mitt romney among all adults, a narrower lead six among registered voters. president obama's position is getting stronger. it doesn't mean it will stay strong. we'll have to see what will happen the next few months, events with iran and that sort of thing. >> does it do anything to the conversation within the republican primary though its f itself? >> reporter: not really. to some degree it makes -- it opens the door for somebody like rick santorum or newt gingrich to make more robust arguments, let's say, among conservative christians. not that much. pretty much to this point everyone knows he will be the nominee so the conversation within the republican race is of limited value at this moment. you see the magnitude in nevada, you see what mitt romney has on tap in colorado. he lo

, although his campaigning has been so inept, except for the debates where i think he's done well. his campaigning has been so inept he's eroding some of that security feeling. >> governor pataki is with us and joined us at the top of the hour, governor rendell. >> well he would be the strongest candidate. >> governor pataki could you lay out your concern about the republicans going after each other and how this weakens -- >> i agree with what ed said which is not uncommon, we often agree, and i think he did say that we've been bloodied over the course of this campaign and we have. i think the most important thing that he said is that none of the republicans have laid out an economic plan that the american people can identify with and say, yes, this is going to help, and i think that's one of the reasons we've been mired and killing each other and one of the reasons we haven't been as effective as we should be in going after president owe ba marx because he has portrayed his vision and i can't stand that vision, of a divisive america in the throes of depression with an ex-ploisive

where is president obama now? jack welch was very interested. take a look. just 28%. now some people have pointed out well the financial crisis started four years ago before the president came in and so the question is how much is he to blame for all that's going on? we'll get rid of that and come back and take a look. who is to blame. survey of all adults 17% blame him for the recession that's up from when we asked this question back in 2010. unemployment about even. you know he's had some improvement and that improvement in the unemployment rate has shine in the national numbers. take a look at the deficit. more americans blaming him. what's key about these issues if you break it down. independents would very much like the national average. let's go over to our next spot and take a look at some other things on the minds of americans. what's your biggest concern when it comes to cost? food, 9%. education, 11%. retirement 14%. this one here, health care costs, 28%. what are we missing here? you got it. gas prices. 28%. fascinating to me that gas prices and health care

the obama campaign team sits back and -- >> is it the media? what's responsible for that? >> i think it's a combination of things. you know, for example, in arizona in the exchange for not moving our primary way up we said okay give us a debate. everybody loves a debate. the networks, the cables love the debate more than anybody because it gives them their highest viewing. but it's not healthy after a while. it used to be -- listen, it used to be that we would say okay, here's how i think we should restore our economy. this is what i think we need to do about afghanistan. instead we're waiting for the shot and how the recipient of the shot responds. that's not illuminating to the american people. >> senator, i'd like to go back to the idea of simpson-bowles still being alive and still having people who are supporting that. how big of a groundswell is there there in the senate and in the house for a plan like that, and how quickly do you think that something like that could be introduced? >> becky, the dirty little secret is that everybody comes full circle and we come back

-- >> not necessarily, it's debatable. >> the worst performance by an incumbent seeking -- >> but he won -- >> well, i am against -- >> anything other than -- >> gifts -- >> not gifts, necessarily, but cobbled together a coalition -- >> but that's what elected officials are supposed to do. just remind everybody very quickly, liberals would be quick to point out that nationally democrats in the house got about 600,000 more votes. >> so your point is that he was able to get more than 50% of the people to vote for tax increases on somebody else? that's quite a sales job. >> the point about polling. >> that's a great sales -- so -- >> overwhelming of people want to tax the rich. it's a bad policy and it's dumb and shouldn't be done. >> it's not hard to get 50% to agree to that. >> of course not. >> tax 2% and give me what you get. >> i agree, but it still polls very well. >> to steve's point. what you're talking about is what americans say they want where they're willing to come from these things. that was david walker's point. our guest host on monday. and his point is there needs to be

should be down at least 10 to 12 points based on his performance. >> i've seen steve kroft interview obama a couple times. if you want to grill him from the left and say you haven't followed through on you will at things that the left wanted, you've been a disappointment from the left, that's what you get. think if he was interviewed by someone from a conservative. >> i thought steve kroft it okay. >> did he say it's not what you haven't been able to do, it's what you did do? >> i think steve kroft is terrific, but i to think mitt interview because tougher. >> it's cbs. i heard nothing about -- are you responsible for some of the divisiveness? the way obamacare was handled the first year and a half when the economy's obviously the thing you should have been focusing on, what ushered in the tea party in 2010? >> he had all the of the cards on his side. all of the votes, key have gotten whatever he wanted. all of the tax things passed. instead he focused on obamacare and now he complain that's can't get anything passed. >> the intro with republicans have stood in your way oefrg you've tried

political debate because u.s. oil policy is going to be a big part, i think, of the discussion we're going to have between now and november. and the obama administration's record is on the line here. and it's being criticized about how well they did or did not do when it came to bringing u.s. natural resources to market. what are the facts as you see them when somebody says to you, look, the obama administration kept oil off the market? what has kept production from being what it could have been? what is your response, dan? >> well, of course, that's an argument about what's happened to federal land. i think the thing that's most striking to me is what we might call private initiative has done. u.s. oil production is actually up 25% since 2008. and to give you a sense of the scale, the increase alone in u.s. oil production since 2008 is equivalent to about 75% of iranian exports. if that production hadn't come about in north dakota, in eagleford in south texas, it would be a lot more difficult -- >> in spite of in

. >> what did you think of mayor bloomberg's endorsement of obama on the grounds of climate change and how does the climate debate change, if it does at all given the sandy storm. >> that's, i -- you know, there are so many articles out there refuting that this is the worst. >> embarrassing. >> i'm not a climatologist, but the stuff i read says this has not been an unusual year or unusual decade. just the opposite. that's what scares me because it gives those people throwing eggs in philadelphia an argument. it's a serious argument. i lived through the nuclear business and they would show up at every meeting and never stop. these folks took the nuclear uniforms off and they've got the fracking uniforms on now and fracking is a word that gives them new energy to go after. >> where are the federal lands that we should be opening up that we're not at this point? >> alaska, and all kinds of things in texas and oklahoma. it's just -- what i'd like to have us think about, becky is that this is the american century and energy is the lifeblood of an economy. it changes our relationships with o

bush and austan goolsbee, former adviser to president barack obama. you know, our friend liesman, austan, he said if they could fix these numbers, if they could somehow fix them, then why didn't they fix the debate performance? that didn't make sense to me. i think i figured it out. you could relax at the debate if you knew you were doing 7.8, all right? you could kind of mail it in, like hey, no big deal. i'm getting a 7.8 on friday. >> look, first of all, i've been saying for months, you've made me be mr. pessimistic on the jobs panel month after month and i told you finally the seasonal adjustment would kick in, in our favor, starting in september and then you didn't have me on! i would have predicted this. you got to at least -- >> i didn't know i could make you do things. that's cool, what do i want to you do. >> no, you made me do nothing. you kicked me off of there. >> where were you last month? >> it wasn't for lack of asking, was it? >> i'm sure we probably begged. >> no, i'm just playing with you. you got to learn the name of the bls commiss

issue of federal lands and permitting by the obama administration. we had an official on from the interior department who told us the industry is sitting on i guess it's millions of acres out there and i think the industry, i believe yourself, you've argued these aren't productive lands. what's the right answer here? >> the right answer is our industry needs acreage in certain areas. you just doesn't buy one lease and go out and drill a well. that's not economic. then all your competitors would know about that. you go out and assemble a lot of acreage and then you drill. that drilling takes time. and while we're getting the permits, in fact the governor of utah just a couple months ago wrote a letter to the president pointing out in utah and this is true in most states, can you get a state permit to drill oil in 30 to 60 days. it takes eight times that long to get a permit out of the federal government. >> are you arguing that the land that the industry has right now is proven to be unproductive? that that land is no good? >> if it's no good, we let

obama will have to improve his performance in the debates. >> a gallup poll has romney and obama tied at 47% each. >> that's early for gallup. >> right here. >> their daily track comes out at 1:00, but this could be a different mole. i'm not aware of this new poll. >> this is one they took afterwards. it's just -- >> i'm hearing about it for the first time. >> i think it just hit. it literally just hit. anyway, john, thank you. we'll talk again very soon. when we come back, do rich people who become congressional leaders stay that way? we vlt details of a special capital assets investigation from the "washington post." plus how strong are the bulls? is there hope for the economy without the help of qe-3? that's all ahead. smart comes with 8 airbags,o3 a crash management system and the world's only tridion safety cell which can withstand over three and a half tons. small in size. big on safety. [ male announcer ] how do you turn an entrepreneur's dream... ♪ into a scooter that talks to the cloud? ♪ or turn 30-million artifacts... ♪ into a high-tech masterpiece? ♪ whatever your

not to bolster medicare but to pay for obama care. cuts from romney will bolster the medicare system itself. >> the danger, to me in the romney/ryan -- >> they are extremes. >> not about extremist. in a debate we used to have around this table every single day about jobs and unemployment, the debate has shifted to this debate about entitlements which gets to his issue is that people who are on the receiving end of the entitlements say you know what? this is not so good for me. >> an ad idealistic young man -- >> how does romney campaign frame thast. >> you don't want an election to be a referendum purely on someone on what's already happened. you want it to be on the different paths for the future that both candidates are proposing? we don't want to have an election just on a referendum just anybody but obama. we want to know what romney and ryan do. this becomes a choice is what the american people deserve, right? do i sound like a preacher. say hallelujah. this is a choice. who want as referendum. should it be a referendum? >> i'm t

i don't think motivating the base, the republican base, the tea party folks, against president obama in november, i don't think that's going to be much of a challenge. the problem is that the republican party has moved so far to the right and the dialogue of these debates has moved so far to the right that independent voters is where they've hurt themselves. and if you look, there's a new poll out this morning, the abc/"washington post" that shows that among independents romney has a favorable of 60 and an unfavorable of 29. but among independents, it's 32 favorable, 48 unfavorable. the damage is among the independents and not the base. >> but, charlie, i've always been betting that eventually romney gets the nomination and then he comes -- he tries to come back to the middle. but then i would imagine the calculus, the political anxiety becomes, does that only add to the sort of flip-flopping rhetoric that you hear around him? >> well, there is the danger of that, but the thing is i don't think a lot of us counted on romney having to run this far this long to the right, go that dista

won the debate. but then on every other measure they thought romney was who they wanted for president so that's again consistent with 1980. >> i used to call it the clinton news network, cnn, but now he's gone so i had to switch it to communist news network. you probably can't say that. >> i like watching cnn. >> did you see them talking about candy crowley, she was superior and the only people that questioned anything she did were people whose guy had a bad night or whose guy didn't have as good a night. that's why they're completely lost in the wilderness. >> candy crowley did a better job than jim lehrer. in the debates somehow the president ends up with five minutes speaking time. >> but romney somehow got 500 more words? and talks faster? >>. >> when she snapped and took the extraordinary step of correcting one of the candidates on what she said was a factual matter and we all know the first two weeks what they said about benghazi. when she said no the president's correct saying he called it an

. >> now let me give you a bottom line on the debate. first of all, you had a huge shot of energy in the republican camp in the romney campaign. republicans were thrilled with his performance. democrats were not so thrilled with president obama's performance. the question is going to be has mitt romney been able in a race where he's been clearly behind the president to hurt him enough and sustain that momentum over the next three weeks. that's what's really critical. there have been strong debates, john kerry had a strong debate against george w. bush in 2004. but he wasn't able to translate that into lasting benefit. that's the best of the next three weeks, to see whether romney can keep it going or whether president obama comes out with a higher level of aggression, higher level of energy in the next debate and stop the momentum that romney accumulated last night. >> okay. yeah, i had so many different thoughts, john, as we watched the whole thing. i remember that a lot of republicans were supporting newt gingrich because just for this

plus president obama and mitt romney will be squaring off in the second presidential debate tonight. this is a town hall format. both sides say their candidate is ready. >> mitt's prepared. mitt's confident. mitt's got a good presence about him. >> i'm smiling, i'm giving a thumbs up if he can see it. i assume that he can, so i make sure that i'm always giving him that positive love. >> john harwood will join us onset in just a few minutes with a preview. in fact he's standing right over here. first, though, let's get to the morning top stories. >> united healthcare is reporting, $1.50 a share is pretty good about that well above the estimate of 1.34. united healthcare is also forecasting full year 2012 net of 5.20 to 5.25. with that 16 cent beat in the third quarter, it should make it easier to hit those numbers even without any increase in where the fourth quarter is. the medical care ratio, consolidated care ratio, 79% in the period. third quarter revenue was 27.62 billion. not bad on the first call side. company earned -- or had 27.62 in revenue. so all in all, looks like a prett

has now entering the debates against george w. bush. he had a reputation as a strong debater. his body language was off, he was condescending to bush. bush was surprisingly well performed and personable. you had the bush campaign take advantage of some mistakes that gore made in the debate. and they really drove a story. cheney beat lieberman in the vice presidential debates. all those things came together and political scientists call it a wave effect. cause out with bush ahead a few points. >> couldn't you just say for an idiot, he was surprisingly well inform informed in say what you're feeling. >> i've never thought bush was an idiot. >> why would you say surprisingly well informed? he was governor for -- he had a higher grade point average than al gore. >> because bush had a reputation -- >> with who? >> among people who cover him and among-mf. >> the media, you mean? >> a significant portion of the american people. >> i'm playing with you. i read what you tweeted, that you're ready for some debating with morning joe and at s

so this is a big deal, these debates. >> obviously you're a supporter of president obama. but what do you think that mitt romney needs to do in this debate to reach out to people? >> he's going to have to give us a coherent view of what he thinks. i think his biggest problem is he's all over the map all the time. the 47% thing was really damaging and then he came back and said, well, no, i'm for everybody. then he said that people could get, you know, were had universal health insurance. if they need health insurance, they go to the emergency room. that doesn't sit well. >> i've got to watch you like a hawk. i enjoyed having you on kudlow the other night. double digits to you is nine points. how does that work? >> close, close. >> you can't round up when it is nine. do you round up six to double digits? >> i try not to do that. >> you know i'm sitting here. >> i'm closer than larry lindsey was about the close of the iraq war. >> you got two guesses, i shouldn't do this, but i'm fascinated to ask neel about the imf report yesterday that said the banks were in no better shap

i think it would be easier to get simpson-bowles with boehner than with president obama. i don't think he's a true believer. >> we can have that debate but we're 40 days away from going off a cliff or small hill depending on who you ask. the question is what can each side give to get us where we need to be. >> but now you are really just talking about kicking the can again. >> i'm about rising above and rising above calls for compromise. >> i think harold is prepared. >> you are a simpson-bowles guy. >> the challenge is the president has drawn a line in the sand saying i want a pound of flesh period. don't get me a number. don't say a combination of spending cuts and a combination of discretionary of entitlement cuts and some tax increases. he's saying there's only one number. there's only one number. you got to give me that number. don't give me that number, the rest doesn't work. the problem is -- >> the country voted for him whether we like it or not. i like it he was re-elected. democrats picked up two seats in the senate. >> the country voted for him and they're goin

what is the role that private equity is supposed to play and how will this play out in this debate? >> i hope just as during the republican primary season that after his opponents in this case president obama takes cheap shots and even the liberal media report that these allegations are totally unfounded that they'll give up and talk about the real issue that america is confronting which is a lack of jobs. 23 million people who either can't find work or have given up looking for work. the fact that we have trillion dollar deficits and we are going to leave our kids saddled with huge taxes and debts for the rest of their lives. that's why we need mitt romney as our president. >> you look at the jobs report coming up on friday. that could be a huge determination in how the scope of this conversation goes. if the number comes in above 165 or 170,000 people may think that this was a run off and we had warm weather in the beginning part of the winter. this is the payback for what happens. if that is the case, if we see a stronger number, what does that tell us about the jobs market right

a very quick look at the obama record which is the point of debate here on jobs. 22 months of job growth, 3.3 million jobs over that period. during the entire term he is down 317 k so he can get to zero over the next three months if things go his way. unemployment has been above 8% for the entire presidency first time in history. i will point out that it depends where you count from right? >> and you have gone from a defender of the dollar, antiqe3 person, someone, a man of reason, to a total qe3 enabler. >> are you the guy tweeting me like all the time? >> everybody is confusing what i'm trying to do which is tell you what the -- what they will or won't do from what i think the fed should or shouldn't do. >> was there money involved in your switch? what did they do for you? >> you're writing all of these tweets to me. that's what you're doing. >> an economist. >> liesman, if you keep going you'll get your qe3 like i want it. >> qe3 enabler. from a man of reason. >> you just decided it may be coming but could the jobs number if it's really strong change your mind again? >> it could. i re

it will be a good debate, but i certainly do not underestimate what barack obama brings to it. >> that was the president and the man who is playing him during mitt romney's debate prep by talking expectations for the first debate. of course it's just two days away. joining us with a review, terry nelson, gop strategist, and democratic strategist morris reed. let's start with you this morning, terry. there is a sense the "washington post" has a piece out this morning that romney needs to be the instigator, he needs to be the aggressor. is that right and can he do it? >> i don't know if he needs to be the instigator. there has been clearly a lot of focus on the romney campaign. he needs to have a very solid performance and 2that's the mos important thing, that he makes his points in a solid and forceful way and if he does that are, i think and he will come out all right. but the idea that he needs to come in a have a debate defining moment in order for to be a success i don't think is right. >> is there one issue or theme that he has to hit home? >> he has to -- this race is about the ec

. >> the structure of obama care will be debated for years, if not decades. >> yes. >> what's indisputable is it's great that we're having the conversation, right? it's forced america to have this conversation. >> you know, and lennon had a wonderful quote. he said, decades go by and

the republicans should change the terms of the debate. for example, they should have just throw it back at the president, how -- pass a bill in the house saying you can't use medicare money to fund obama care. love to see harry reid block a vote on that one. and how about the no changes in benefits for medicare and social security. the white house is quite willing to throw seniors under the bus under that. so the republicans should have gone on offense, joe. >> i can't tell where -- i'm going back and looking at which one of these. you're somewhere between denial and anger i think, still, steve. you have not reached acceptance. >> acceptance of hurting an economy -- >> i know. >> is not what the political -- bob novak, the great political -- >> don't the american people deserve this? they want their entitlements, we've got to pay for them. >> there are various ways you do entitlements. for example on the social security, you don't have to change any benefit formulas, including cost of living for those on the system, about to go on the sys

obama has always avoided debating with mitt romney on those issues. he's changed the subject. it's interesting to watch. the president knows that mr. ryan knows more about the budget and taxes than he does and, therefore, he doesn't really want to debate him on these things. of course, that's a "wall street journal" talking at that point. >> i'm not sure that's true, joe. >> i know, i know. >> but, remember, the moment -- remember the moment when president obama delivered his version of a ten-year deficit reduction plan in a speech, i believe it was at georgetown university and paul ryan was in the front row and he called out ryan's budget. a lot of republicans thought that was a cheap shot. but the obama campaign wanted to elevate that. >> but people didn't think that he would even show to that. and it did seem like a -- i don't know. the supreme court felt the same way at the state of the union that time when they were being scolded. >> my question for john, and it goes back to the question of independence, the 8% that has not made up its mind, does this help them on the rep

. >>> coming up we're going to have a debate president obama and mitt romney trading shots on "60 minutes" last night innen early preview of what it might look like, coming up next a campaign debate strategy session with experts from both parties, kellyanne conway and jimmy williams will face off when "squawk" comes back. tegies from independent experts and see what criteria they use. such as a 5% yield on dividend-paying stocks. then you can customize the strategies and narrow down to exactly those stocks you want to follow. i'm mark allen of fidelity investments. the expert strategies feature is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account. [ male announcer ] for the dreamers... and those well grounded. for what's around this corner... and the next. there's cash flow options from pnc. solutions to help businesses like yours accelerate receivables, manage payments, and help ensure access to credit. because we know how important cash flow is to reaching your goals. pnc bank. for the achiever in you. >>> welcome back,

but the next debate is going to be very tough. i think obama is under a lot of pressure. now as far as jack welch is concerned, you're all sitting around talking about jack welch, a great legend in business, a very smart guy, he's 100% correct, 100% correct. >> wait a second, in terms of the chicago political guys manipulating the numbers? >> how does it go down to 7? there wasn't an economist in the country and after the election they'll do a big correction but jack welch has it right, there's no question 100% and a lot of the numbers that they're using are given by the obama administration. >> i know ken has a question for you, but my only thought on this whole thing is, i don't know that i buy that 7.8% number. i don't think that's real. i don't know that it was politics necessarily. >> nobody buys it. >> he's saying it's the numbers given to the bls by the obama administration. there's a lot of assumptions. obama care, the cbo, you can't impugn the cbo for coming up with $1 trillion for obama care. it was the numbers they got, double counting taxes, all of these bells

and they wanted him to show a little leg against obama too. this is a preview of what you'll see in the debates by romney. this whole nonsense of likability can we stop talking about charisma. i want to talk about a bye who can create jobs. likeability is so overblown. do you like the guy who fixes the pipes or do you like the guy who doesn't fix the pipes that makes you laugh a little bit while he fails to fix the pipes. we need a guy who can turn things around. >> i would agree but there's two men that have a rob. one is reagan and one is clinton. they both did exactly what you're talking about they promised but they had the likability factor and hit in a huge way. clinton came in only because the economy frankly and ross perot. >> thanks for admitting that. >> reagan was a great president and raised taxes and economy. he ran against a pretty weak guy. >> they created jobs. that makes you likeable. >> we lost jobs under obama. 4.5 million jobs created. he didn't create a single one of them, american businesses created them. the point is if y

i guess schwartz went there but obama won handily in washington. he doesn't want to get on either side of this debate because some independents helped him there and they might not be anti-scott walker. >> donald last week on the program we talked about the birther issue, it became another media fire storm. we actually talked to governor romney about your views and his views on your views about that issue and i wanted you to take a listen to this for a quick second and react. >> i disagree with it. i think there's no question but the president was born in the united states of america. i don't go around telling all my supporters what they should think or what they should say but he knows what i believe about this. i believe the real issues in this campaign and the issues that america cares about are not issues of the president's personality or matters of that nature. >> donald, so should we end this? >> no, he is entitled to his view and i think that's great. look, i made the keynote speech in north carolina this weekend. the biggest applause was whe

has a tendency to shoot first and aim late sgler the intense debate on how america should lead. >>> the secret to apple's success. >> this is iphone 5. >> how ceo tim cook is keeping steve jobs' magic alive. the second hour of "squawk box" starts right now. >>> good morning and welcome to "squawk box." i'm andrew ross sorkin along with becky quick and joe kernen. looks like the cow will open 13 points higher, s&p higher, nasdaq off marginally on the other -- in the other direction. >> it has been amazing to see the market continue to climb even though it's awaiting the news from the federal reserve. it is a big decision day for the federal reserve. yesterday we closed at a 4 1/2 year high. steve leisman made the trip to washington for the news conference later today. steve, i guess the question is, will he or won't he? >> i mean the expectation is that he will, and he will do so into what is essentially a very charged political environment. i want to sort of walk you through what seems to be the decision-making process of the fed chairman here. let's begin with the minutes of the au

no one's really listening and the white house has controlled the debate that it's all about the upper 2%. the first thing in texas you do is shrink the size of government, wouldn't you? >> well, we did that. we faced a substantial budget shortfall. we have a constitutional amendment that requires us to have a balanced budget, which frankly america needs that. >> i don't know what would happen. >> most states have that. >> the states that are -- i would suggest to you the states that are doing better economically have a constitutional amendment that requires them to balance their budget. so, we had to deal with that in the early 2000s. and interestingly, it was the first time since the 19th century, since back about 1870, that there were all republicans, republican speaker, republican house, republican lieutenant governor, republican senate and myself, and we had run on the premise that we were going to treat government differently, that we were going to treat it more like how folks in the private sector have to deal with their businesses, that we weren't going to raise taxes, that we

my alternative when woorp debating was to have a commitment not to raise taxes. if president obama came in and said i'm not going to raise tax pez. >> by the way, he didn't. >> with a lot of pressure and always the urn certainty saying we need to. and also if he came in and said the middle-class tax cut, i'm going to make it permanent. >> so you didn't help kevin write this piece. >> were you cheering -- >> kevin is a former student of mine. i respect him greatly. >> i keep hearing it, thank god we've had this government that allowed to us get back to 2% growth that orchestrated 2% growth. and this is the crux of the issue for this election, the counterfactor that we'd be better off or you give the government credit from bringing us back from the abyss. >> you have a really good budget plan that romney is on part of it and you have this other budget plan is that doesn't deal with our exploding debt. at least we can have a debate. let have a serious debate about which is the right way to go. i think i know what is the right way to go. >> we have to kill some other

. >> the deductions, you know, maybe the supreme court doesn't allow obama care to go. >> we will debate some of those numbers. >> but i wouldn't pay any. i don't want them, and i wouldn't pay any. >> it's my interview. i can say good-bye to jayson. jayson, thank you. >> can you speak in another language? >> if you were to possess my body, thing i could. >> ew. >> still ahead, the author of "standing on the sun" is going to tell us how emerging economic powerhouses are going to change the face of business as we know it when we return. ♪ [ kareem ] i was fascinated by balsa wood airplanes since i was a kid. [ mike ] i always wondered how did an airplane get in the air. at ge aviation, we build jet engines. we lift people up off the ground to 35 thousand feet. these engines are built by hand with very precise assembly techniques. [ mike ] it's gonna fly people around the world. safely and better than it's ever done before. it would be a real treat to hear this monster fire up. [ jaronda ] i think a lot of people, when they look at a jet engine, they see a big hunk of metal. but when i lo

interestingly at least to me you compared netanyahu in terms of the demands that he's making on the obama administration to john boehner. explain. >> well, one of the things i found really fascinating and my colleague bob woodward's new book "the price of politics," was his reconstruction of the debate last year over putting together a fiscal package, surrounding the debate over lifting the debt ceiling, and as you remember, one of the issues was whether the extension of the debt ceiling would be short term or somewhat longer term. the republicans were pushing to have the issue come open again right about now, and obama really dug in his heels on this, and said i am absolutely not going to have this issue come up during a political season. it's totally wrong. i want a resolution that carries us through into 2013, and when he was warned by his treasury secretary tim geithner that mr. president, this could lead to inability to get a deal, and breaking the debt ceiling he said i'm sorry, this is something i'm not going to compromise on. i feel the republicans are trying to leverage this, and

table for president obama. i think he came into the debate. he clarified positions and extended a lot of effort to make sure that every questionable play, every kind of dodge to the middle was pulled back. he's a representative of congress. >> chaer mirman of the budget committee. >> i think that the vice president showed up -- >> you doesn't think there was anything to the being too condescending? >> i didn't think so. i guess there's been a lot of theatrical review. >> style versus substance. >> i tend to focus more on the substance. i know the vice president and that's him. i really do think some of to him was kind of laughable. especially like the part on the stimulus. he's talking about how the stimulus didn't work. >> he wouldn't know which part because he was laughing the whole time. he knew he was going to be in a split screen. >> again, i won't review the -- >> all i'm trying to figure out, the post, we can't see it, but the post, the entire front of it, the another edition, vote for joe. i'm trying to

so i think a first thing to look at is actually president obama's budget. president obama's budget actually does have specific way to get to additional $1.6 trillion in revenue, people may not like it. we can have a debate around it but it goes line by line as you can get an additional $1.6 trillion in revenue. when it comes to entitlements it has an additional $300 billion in savings. health care it goes line by line. in the next several weeks my guess is we're not going to agree to all those lines. my hope is they agree to overall targets when it comes to entitlements and revenue, they may lay out a number of the ways that you'd end up reaching those targets and several months after that, that actually write the legislation. i think the danger is that when it comes to the discretionary budget, 40% of the budget that's annually appropriate, where you decide how to allocate resources annually, what they decide to do is they end up reducing that category three or five years out. they realize they don't have to make the hard decisions for three to five years